Young Foodie Adventures

The All-Grown-Up Taco Bar

Who doesn’t love a taco bar? This combination is the sophisticated, dinner-party-ready version. This menu used the occasional shortcut, but it didn’t take days of prep work and was so colorful and festive. Serve with margaritas and Mexican beer.

The Menu:

Pulled Pork

Grilled Veggies

Charred tortillas

Colorful Mayo-less Slaw

Red Rice

Mango Salsa

Assorted Toppings: Mexican Cheese, Scallions, Chipotle Aioli

Everything but the grilled veggie plate was made ahead. Here was the game plan:

Prepped the Mango Salsa, Slaw, and toppings. Moved directly to serve ware, covered and stored in the fridge. I won’t go into specific details on these items, be inspired and create your own combinations (or just google like I did). I followed the mango salsa that went with the pork mentioned above but added a secret ingredient- grated ginger!

Made the red rice. I used this recipe from Real Simple. It was delicious and reheated well in a covered casserole dish.

Take a break and clean the house, clean yourself up, and then return to the kitchen.

Prep the veggies (slice, brush with oil, S&P). I used portabellas, zucchini, and red peppers. These looked beautiful on a plate.

Assemble the buffet and make it look pretty minus the pork, tortillas, and veggies.

The pork is done! Remove from the crockpot, shred, shred, shred and move to serving platter.Move liquid from the crockpot and pour overtop to keep moist. Cover with foil.

With 30 minute to game time pour yourself a margarita (or beer if that is your thing) and start the grill. Start with the tortillas, just 1-2 minutes per side, then wrap in a damp paper towel and foil. Then grill the veggies.

Chop the veggies and move to a serving platter.

Then (in my case) feel a little embarrassed taking pictures in front of your dinner guests. Pictures weren’t great but the food was.